Orquesta Del Sol -- Rainbow Love

 

First off, I have to make a long-needed correction. Back in the early days of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I wrote about "Watashi wa Piano"（私はピアノ）which was first recorded by Mizue Takada（高田みづえ）and then it was covered by the scintillating salsa band Orquesta De La Luz（オルケスタ・デ・ラ・ルス）. For the longest time, I'd assumed that Orquesta De La Luz was Japan's first group dedicated to the genre of salsa but actually I was wrong about that. In all truth, that honour goes to Orquesta Del Sol (オルケスタデルソル...Orchestra of the Sun) that first formed in 1978 compared to Orquesta De La Luz's birth in 1984.

In fact, one of the percussionists involved in Orquesta Del Sol, Gen Ogimi（大儀見元）, would become the leader of Orquesta De La Luz. According to Tower Records, other members of Orquesta Del Sol included percussionist Pecker（ペッカー）, pianist Ken Morimura（森村献）and bassist Getao Takahashi（高橋ゲタ夫）. A number of albums were released by the band but their debut record was "Rainbow Love" in 1981. And here is the title track which is as fun and percolating as any salsa song deserves to be. Unfortunately, I couldn't find out who is the lead vocalist here.

Orquesta Del Sol doesn't have a J-Wiki entry but it does have a presence on Facebook at least.